Unleashed
by Goody
Summary: What if the team had no back up plan and Eliot really had been drugged? Spoilers for The Tapout Job
1. Safety's Off

**Title**: Unleashed 1/2  
**Rating**: PG-13 (violence!)  
**Summary**: What if the team had no back-up plan and Eliot really had been drugged?  
**Spoilers**: The Tap-Out Job  
**Author's Note**: I'll try to get chapter 2 done tomorrow. Just a quick team h/c fic because some people requested some drugged!Eliot action. Hope you enjoy!!!

The fight was going well, as well as a fight you had to lose could go. Tank could take a hit, so Eliot dished out some punishment before he had to go down. He figured they could trade blows for the first round and then he'd drop at some point in the second. At least that had been the plan before the world started to tilt.

The drugs hit fast.

One second Eliot was easily dodging a left hook, the next he was blinking hard, trying to figure out where he was as a fist connected with his jaw. He fell back but instead of hitting the ground he felt himself being supported by some kind of rope or fence behind him. Suddenly all he knew was that the world was blurry and loud and he was under attack in an unknown place. His control slipped away with his coherence and as a kick slammed into his ribs his survival instincts took over completely.

This was life or death now.

This was Eliot unleashed.

Outside the ring Nate could just barely detect the change. Eliot had been doing well, taking hits where he needed to but not making it look set up. But then he dodged a punch and stopped short. Just before Tank's fist connected Nate could see Eliot's eyes become unfocussed and his heart dropped into his stomach.

"Oh no," he whispered, grabbing the water bottle and sniffing it. It was barely there, a hint of medicine. Rucker had drugged Eliot even though he had agreed to go down. Nate looked up to see Eliot take a second hit to his ribs, then he stormed over to Rucker. "You stupid son of a bitch! You drugged him!"

Next to Rucker, Sophie's eyes widened, "What?"

"He said he'd go down!" Parker protested but Rucker was unphased.

"I wasn't about to take the word of a bunch of conmen. It'll be over in a minute," he said confidently.

"You're right, it will," Nate assured him ominously, going back to the ring to watch Eliot more closely.

Sophie shook her head as they all watched Eliot recover and take the fight in a very different direction. Gone were the wrestling holds and take-downs, Eliot had shifted into his fluid, hard movements meant to disarm men bigger than Tank in a matter of seconds.

"You idiot," Sophie berated Rucker as Eliot landed blow after wild blow so quickly that Tank couldn't even fall down. "Eliot doesn't fight for sport or a career, he fights to survive. It takes all his control not to kill! You just took the safety off the gun!"

Back in the ring Eliot could sense that he only had one opponent and he was weakening, but so was Eliot. The drugs were making him hazier by the second making his blows more frantic, more primal as he knew he had to take out his enemy before he succumbed to whatever was effecting him. Tank's face was destroyed by this point and he was more trying to get away than fight back. Pushing against the ropes he fell to the floor and tried to crawl. Eliot stayed on him, never relenting, pushed by survival.

"He's gonna kill him," Hardison noted fearfully.

"Ref, break it up! Now! He's gonna kill him!" Nate warned. The ref was in Rucker's pocket though and looked to the promoter.

"Tell him to call it! He can't stop himself," Sophie yelled. Rucker's eyes were wide with fear for his fighter and from his opponent. Finally he nodded.

"Okay, that's it! Fight's over," the ref shouted and tried to pull Eliot away from the bleeding, motionless Tank.

In Eliot's mind though another opponent had just snuck up behind him. Snapping around quickly, eyes wild, he smashed an elbow into the ref's temple and then kneed him hard in the gut.

"Hey!" People outside the ring began shouting in anger, half of whom were fighters the size of Tank or bigger. As Eliot brought a hammerfist down on the ref's back, fighters and even Rucker himself started to swarm the ring to try to stop him.

"Nate, what do we do?" Sophie asked, rushing over.

"We can't do anything. If he's drugged he won't recognize us. We have to wait for him to go down," Nate explained.

Parker motioned to the half dozen fighters swearing and scrambling into the ring, "They're going to kill him!"

Nate shook his head, "It's not Eliot I'm worried about, yet."

There was an animalistic growl then suddenly bodies were falling and flying everywhere. Eliot's movements were fluid, precise as he kicked at joints and punched at pressure points, conserving his energy. If his enemies kept coming he had to keep fighting, even if he didn't know where he was and his ears were pounding with white noise and his eyes could only make out shapes. Violence and survival guided him. He punched one man in the throat, dropping him instantly while he kicked out the knee of the next man and elbowed the one after that in the nose so hard he dropped unconscious.

"Eliot, stop! It's over!" Hardison yelled desperately. They all yelled, knowing better than to try to get closer, but Eliot couldn't hear them over the thrumming sound of his blood.

Someone finally connected a blow, a straight punch to Eliot's eye. He rolled with the momentum of the hit, spun back to his former position and broke the man's arm.

As the first group of fighters that swarmed the ring went down one by one to Eliot's ferocious onslaught, the others outside the ring began to back away, eyes flashing terror and no desire to get anywhere near the force of destruction that had been unleashed. Soon there was only Rucker and two other fighters in the ring with Eliot. While the hitter dished out a series of quick strikes to bring down a man twice his size, the last remaining fighter came up behind Eliot and grabbed him in a chokehold as Eliot finished off his opponent.

"Son of a bitch," Rucker muttered, emboldened by Eliot's seemingly defenseless position he rushed forward and punched the hitter hard in the stomach and face. He might as well not have bothered. With a grunt Eliot kicked forward, hitting Rucker in the gut and knocking the wind out of him. With the same movement he snapped his head back, head butting the man holding him and probably breaking his nose before delivering an upper cut that knocked him out.

Then he pounced on Rucker, the only man still standing. Eliot couldn't tell the difference at the moment but Rucker wasn't a fighter, he was a manager, and he practically squealed in horror as Eliot came for him. The hitter felt his eyes wanting to close, his body betraying him from the drugs. One left, his senses told him. One left to take care of then you can rest.

Rucker took two hits to the temple before went down, but he went down with Eliot on top of him. Half-collapsing to the ground, the crowd was silent as Eliot ground-and-pounded Rucker's face in for long seconds, delivering wild blow after blow. Finally there was only the sound of shocked gasps and several women crying.

Eliot sensed the threat was over, his adrenaline died, his instincts congratulated him and his eyes rolled up into his head as he passed out.

"Go, now, he's down!" Nate instructed the team as he climbed into the ring, wanting to reach Eliot before any of the angry by-standers did. Parker and Hardison followed him while Sophie ran for a familiar face in the crowd.

"Mr. Holworth, we have to get Eliot out of here. Can you help us?" she asked quickly, hating to request anything from the man they were trying to help but seeing no other choice.

"Course. Go bring a car around, I'll help your friends," he promised and she smiled in thanks before disappearing outside.

Back in the ring Nate checked Eliot over while Parker and Hardison watched the crowd, ready to do whatever would be necessary to keep them back. So far they mostly just seemed stunned by what they had seen.

"Eliot. Eliot, can you hear me?" Nate asked, lightly tapping Eliot's cheek. There was absolutely no response and Nate cringed when he saw blood on his fingers. Eliot was bruised everywhere and there was blood trickling from his mouth and a cut on his temple. There was more on his chest but Nate didn't think that was Eliot's.

"God, look at Rucker," Parker whispered, uncharacteristically mortified.

"He's gonna need a hospital," Hardison agreed, gulping at the sight of the mess that used to be Rucker's face.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" Nate yelled to the stunned crowd.

"Several!" Hardison amended, taking in the unconscious bodies across the floor. "Call several ambulances. And ask for really strong paramedics, these guys are heavy."

Nate looked up when he heard someone entering the ring but sighed when he saw it was Mr. Holworth.

"Mr. Ford, your friend said you could use a hand. She went out front to get the car," he explained.

"Good, thank you. Grab an arm, please," Nate requested, indicating they had to move Eliot.

"Shouldn't a doctor look at him?" Holworth asked.

"No time, we gotta get out of here. Besides, doctor will have his hands full," Nate replied, pulling one of Eliot's arms over his shoulders. Holworth wasn't a huge man but he worked a farm all his life and knew how to lift. He took most of Eliot's weight.

"Hardison, ropes," Nate instructed. Hardison rushed ahead and held the ropes open as Nate and Holworth tried to manipulate Eliot out of the ring with Parker on the floor helping to guide them.

"Watch his hair," she suggested as they slipped his head through the ropes. When they were down Hardison took charge of clearing a path.

"All right, show's over folks. This man needs a hospital, move! Don't make me ask twice, come on! Emergency here! Make a path! I will call your mama, move!" Hardison demanded, leading the way out the doors.

Sophie was waiting on the curb, engine running, back door open. Nate got in the back first and Holworth handed Eliot to him, then got in the front seat.

There wasn't enough room in the car for all of them so Hardison leaned in the window, "Parker and I will take the van and meet up with you."

"Be careful!" Nate shouted to them as they disappeared.

"How is he?" Sophie asked as they pulled out.

"I can't be sure until he wakes up," Nate replied. "I don't think he took any hits worse than what he normally does but who knows what the drugs will do to him. Mr. Holworth, did the hospital tell you what was in Mark's system after his fight?"

"I can't remember the name," he admitted apologetically. "They said it was a mild sedative mixed with something else that causes confusion, haziness. The drugs weren't what hurt him though, it was the beating he took because of them."

"Okay, that's good for Eliot at least," Nate replied from the backseat with Eliot's head resting in his lap as the hitter lay sprawled over the seat. "Sophie, don't go back to the hotel. I have a feeling Rucker knew we were staying there and I don't think any of his people are going to be too happy with us."

"Where are we going then?" she asked.

"There's a hotel near the edge of town, kind of seedy," Holworth told them. "Cash only kind of place, if that's what you're looking for."

"Sounds good, give Sophie the directions," Nate requested quickly turning his attention to Eliot, opening each of the hitter's eyelids to check their responsiveness. Hardison and Parker checked in that they would follow and Nate tilted his head back against the seat, exhausted as he felt the weight of Eliot's unconscious body across his legs. This con had gone worse than the First David Job and again, it was Eliot who had gotten hurt. It was beginning to be a disheartening trend.

TBC

I'll try to get the aftermath written tomorrow. Hope this filled the drugged!Eliot quota!


	2. Rebuild

**Title**: Unleashed 2/2**  
Rating**: PG-13 (violence!)**  
Summary**: What if the team had no back-up plan and things had turned out much, much worse?**  
Spoilers**: The Tap-Out Job**  
Author's Note**: Thanks so much for all the encouragement guys, your words made this chapter better than I had hoped it could be!

The hotel was as off-the-radar as promised. Sophie went in to pay for two rooms while Nate and Holworth moved Eliot as discreetly as possible. He was still unconscious and they had one of his arms draped over each of them. Hardison and Parker came around the corner just as they reached their hotel door and the hacker shook his head.

"You guys look like you're trying to hide a dead body. Badly," he commented. Parker punched him in the arm. "Hey, what?"

"Don't compare Eliot to a dead body," she demanded tightly. He nodded apologetically as they all filed into the hotel room. Sophie came in last and watched as they laid Eliot out on the closest bed.

"God, he's a mess," she sighed sympathetically. "Do we have …"

Hardison proudly held up the first aid kit before she finished her sentence, "Right here. Eliot packed it so it should have everything we'd need."

"Give it here," Nate ordered as he pulled a chair up next to Eliot's bed. He took the kit and started rifling through it, then asked, "Parker, can you get some ice."

"Yep," she promised and disappeared quietly.

"Sophie, hot water," Nate continued, easily handing out jobs like always. "Hardison, find out if anyone's after us, legal or otherwise. Mr. Holworth, thank you for help, but it's not safe for you here and people are going to be wondering where you are. You should go be with your son."

Mr. Holworth looked reluctant but nodded, trusting that the team knew what they were doing.

"All right, I'll get a cab home. Please, call me if you need anything and let me know how he's doing," he requested and Nate assured him he would.

As Holworth left Parker came back with the ice that Nate told her to put in the ice pack from the first aid kit. When Sophie brought the hot water out Nate cleaned the blood off the hitter's face to better see the damage – the cut on his temple didn't need stitches thankfully but his left eye was already starting to swell.

"Parker, hold the ice pack on Eliot's eye for now, we'll try to keep the swelling down," Nate instructed as his hands moved down Eliot's chest, prodding at the bruises to check for broken ribs.

Nate's fingers pressed against the worst bruise on Eliot's right side and they were all surprised when the hitter grunted in pain and opened his eyes. The sedative had been mild as Holworth had said but whatever it had been mixed with wasn't out of Eliot's system, his mind was still reacting on survival instincts alone. Feeling pain on his right side Eliot sat up and swung wildly in defense of whoever was trying to hurt him.

Parker backed away and Nate narrowly managed to avoid the blow but fell out of his chair and onto the floor.

"Nate!" Sophie cried, unsure if he had been hit but Nate quickly held up a hand and crawled away from the bed.

"Everyone stay back, don't try to restrain him," he instructed as he stood up and they all watched Eliot look around the room with wide eyes, huffing in confusion as his flight or fight response was kicking in but he couldn't quite detect the threat.

"What if he hurts himself?" Hardison whispered from the back of the room.

"We'll worry about ourselves for now. Everyone stay calm and get close to the door just in case."

The team nodded and backed away slowly from the bed, trying not to draw Eliot's attention. It was a surreal moment for all of them, like being trapped in a room with a rabid dog that used to sleep protectively at your feet.

Nate lingered the longest, staying just out of reach. He needed to figure out how much the drugs were still affecting the hitter so asked softly, "Eliot. Can you hear me?"

Eliot's head spun towards the voice and they could see his eyes blinking rapidly. Everyone held their breath, waiting to see if Eliot would attack. When he didn't move Nate tried again a little louder.

"Eliot?"

Eliot's breathing was coming more like gasps now and he clenched the sheets beneath him like an anchor.

"Nate?" Eliot asked in a breath, voice tight with uncertainty.

"Yes!" Nate replied enthusiastically but still kept his distance. "Yes, it's Nate. I'm right here Eliot."

"Where?" Eliot questioned next, eyes still scouring the room in confusion.

"You're in a hotel in Nebraska," Nate explained slowly, trying to jog the hitter's memory. "You're safe, it's all right. You took a few hits but you're okay. The whole team's here. There's nothing to worry about. You're safe."

Nate's plan was to try to ease Eliot's instincts for self-preservation by assuring him of his safety but so far the hitter wasn't relaxing, though he wasn't attacking either which Nate was thankful for.

"The team … safe?"

Eliot's question was asked breathlessly and Nate almost misunderstood and told Eliot again that he was safe but then his features softened and he nodded, "Yeah Eliot, the team's safe. We're all here. We're safe. You can go back to sleep."

Eliot's eyelids were losing the battle with consciousness so he nodded almost imperceptibly and then promptly passed out yet again, falling silently onto the pillows behind him.

Sophie instinctively rushed forward to check on him but Nate grabbed her arm.

"He's still pretty out of it," he warned them all. "We should probably keep our distance until it's worn off some more. If he has a nightmare or a jolt of pain it could set him off again and we'd have no warning."

As the team nodded silently in agreement with Nate's assessment, the mastermind cringed when he saw fear reflected in all of their eyes, a kind of fear he had never seen in any of them before. It was fear of Eliot and what he might do to them, fear that he could snap and hurt them at any second. Nate knew that it was rational to feel something like that in a moment like this, when Eliot truly could lose control, he could only hope that that fear would disappear the next day when Eliot was himself again. Probably the worst part was that Nate knew right now the same fear was reflected in his own eyes for which he silently apologized to Eliot and sat down far across the room.

* * *

The next time Eliot groaned and shifted was hours later. The room was bright and hot, not having decent curtains or air-conditioning. He blinked his unswollen eye through an incredibly painful headache and flinched at the harsh lighting then turned slowly when a voice sounded off beside him.

"Eliot, are you okay?"

Eliot's eye wouldn't focus properly but he could make out the shape of a person across the room that sounded like Nate.

"Nate? What the hell's going on?" he asked, his voice even deeper than usual.

He heard Nate sigh deeply and take the chair next to the bed, then hand him a glass of water and some aspirin, knowing that Eliot wouldn't take anything stronger than that, "It's a long story. How you feeling?"

"Like a bomb went off inside my head."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Eliot gulped the water greedily, the drugs had dehydrated him, and pushed himself slowly into a sitting position, "I was supposed to fight Tank, right? We still in Nebraska?"

Nate nodded, taking back the glass and handing Eliot an icepack instead. The hitter took a second to assess himself and decided his eye needed it the most.

"Yeah, Parker and Hardison are in the room next door, Sophie went out to get some food," Nate said in response to the unasked question.

"So what happened?" Eliot asked. "I feel like shit but I don't feel like I got my ass handed to me all that bad."

"That's because you won, technically," Nate informed him. As Eliot's eyes widened he explained, "Rucker drugged you, it hit about halfway through the fight only it didn't knock you out it just kind of messed you up. You didn't know where you were and …"

Eliot's jaw clenched, easily reading the hesitance in Nate's reply, "I hurt people didn't I?"

"Yeah, a couple," Nate told him apologetically. "They were all fighters though. In a lot of ways they started it. You were just defending yourself."

Eliot looked away and stared at the wall, then asked flatly, "I kill anyone?"

Nate's answer was slow, calculated, "We're not sure. This isn't the most high-tech town. According to Hardison neither the police or hospital reports have been entered electronically yet. From what I saw I don't think so but we got out of there pretty quickly after you passed out. Anything could have happened."

Eliot's lip twitched and his eyes hardened. With a growl he threw the aspirin bottle he was still holding across the room and pushed himself out of bed. With his eye swollen he didn't notice that Nate flinched noticeably at the outburst, bolted out of his chair and backed away.

Pacing the room, Eliot growled, "I'm gonna kill Rucker, that son of a bitch."

"Eliot calm down," Nate requested, his hands held out in a calming gesture.

"I'm not gonna calm down Nate, that bastard drugged me, he made me hurt people, he practically turned me into a murderer, he took …"

Eliot stopped his speech, and turned away from Nate to face the wall, a hand going over his mouth as his breathing sped up.

Even though he hadn't said it, Nate could fill in the end of that sentence.

_He took away my control._

Eliot's most precious commodity, his greatest demon – the control he had over the violence inside him. In all their time together this was the only time Nate had seen Eliot lose control in any way. The hitter's attacks were always calculated, precise, just the needed amount of force and violence to get the job done. But last night Eliot hadn't lost control, he had it torn away from him. It was a violation of everything Eliot had worked for in his life and Nate could see that it was eating him up.

Mostly Nate hated that he was too scared to move any closer to offer comfort.

"I just meant there's no point in going after Rucker, you took care of him last night," Nate told him softly. "He was stupid enough to jump in the ring with some of the fighters trying to stop you and he got in your way. He was in pretty rough shape when we left. He basically shot himself with the gun he loaded."

"I hate gun metaphors almost as much as I hate guns, Nate, especially when they're about me," Eliot replied then started pacing once more. They both jumped when the door suddenly burst open with Parker and Hardison practically falling over each other as they rushed inside. They both stopped short when they saw Nate and Eliot staring at them, confused.

"Um, we heard … like … noises," Hardison tried unsuccessfully to explain.

"We heard snarling and figured Eliot woke up. Morning," Parker added cheerfully, covering up their true motivations with a quick smile. Eliot still looked confused but Nate knew that they had really rushed in here because they heard shouting and thought Eliot might be attacking him.

"How are you feeling?" Hardison asked quickly, as if that was the reason for their visit.

"Angry."

With most of the team here now Eliot let the earlier issue drop, deciding to deal with it himself when he was alone. He slowly sat back down on the bed, finally feeling the full aftereffects of the beating and the drugs he had taken. Looking down he saw his bruised, cut knuckles were bleeding slightly and he also felt moisture on his forehead – when he touched his temple his fingers came back red.

"How long have we been here?" Eliot asked suddenly.

Hardison looked at his watch, "You been passed out about six hours I think."

Eliot turned and saw the first aid kit was open and laid out on the table beside his bed yet none of his injuries were cleaned or bandaged. His brow furrowed. He didn't expect the team to patch him up or anything but it seemed an odd thing to prepare and not use, unless …

His eyes dropped to the floor as realization struck.

"You didn't want to come near me last night. Y'all thought I would hurt you."

It didn't come out as an accusation, just a sad fact, a fact that made the others shift uncomfortably with guilt.

"Maybe, a little. I mean, it was possible, but you … you weren't yourself man," Hardison said sympathetically. "I mean, normally you know, and we know, that you got our backs, one hundred percent."

"Yep," Parker chimed in. "Backs. All yours."

"You didn't recognize us," Nate added. "You didn't even know where you were, we had to keep our distance."

Eliot ran a hand down his face and nodded, replying tightly, "Yeah, I get it."

Then he stood up.

His team thought he could hurt them.

But worse, he could have hurt his team. His family.

These realizations suddenly suffocated him and he had to get out, get some space but he couldn't go outside bloody and still wearing his boxing shorts so he headed for the only visible retreat in the small space.

"I gotta get cleaned up," he said, walking hastily to the bathroom, quickly righting his balance through the pain that exploded in his right side.

"Do you need a hand?" Nate asked quickly.

Eliot shook his head and didn't turn around, "I'll manage."

They flinched as the door slammed and they stood in silence, looking at the floor in shame until they heard the water start in the shower.

It was Parker who spoke first, having assessed the situation uncharacteristically well, "I know he wouldn't hurt me but after last night I just feel … tense around him."

Hardison nodded, "I hear ya. I've seen Eliot take guys out before but last night, that was … that was crazy. There was no holding back."

"That's why Eliot needs control, he always has it," Nate told them, neglecting to mention the reports he had read of Eliot's earlier career before he had found a way to control the violence inside him. "He's back in control now but it's going to be important for him to know that we still trust him. That this doesn't change anything."

Hardison and Parker nodded their understanding but inside they all knew that this had changed things. Eliot had always been seen as their protector, like an angry older brother looking out for his siblings that always got into trouble. It was part of what had made them a family. But knowing how big a part of Eliot the violence truly was and seeing the things he was capable of, even if he had been drugged, well, all their worlds had shifted a little that night.

* * *

When Eliot came out of the shower half an hour later he found the team waiting for him silently in the main room, absently munching the food Sophie had brought.

"Sandwich?" Parker asked, holding up a bag. "Chicken salad, tuna or ham?"

"Give me whatever's on top," he requested, easily catching Parker's toss.

"How are you feeling?" Sophie asked, unaware it was the third time he had been asked all morning.

"Spring fresh," he replied evenly, running a towel through his hair. They could all see the bruises and cuts on his torso, they spoke for themselves. The fact that he was up and moving around should have answered the question. Spotting Hardison typing furiously at his laptop Eliot asked, "We know anything yet?"

"Yeah, the hospital reports finally got inputted. It's mostly bruises and broken bones for the guys who jumped in to stop you, nothing too serious," Hardison told him.

It didn't escape Eliot's notice that he stopped before the whole story was done, "What about Tank and Rucker?"

Hardison gulped and kept his eyes on the screen as he answered tightly, "Tank's got a skull fracture and inter-cranial swelling. He's going into surgery to ease the pressure. Rucker's in a coma."

"Jesus," Eliot mumbled, distraught at the destruction he had caused.

"It's no worse than he deserves," Nate told him seriously, not lamenting the pain Rucker had been dished out because of his own sleezy tricks.

"Yeah, well what happens to the Holworth's when he wakes up from that coma? Guy's still a bullying dirtbag who runs this town," Eliot pointed out.

"If," Parker said.

"What?" Eliot asked.

" 'If' he wakes up from the coma. Not 'when'," Parker explained. "And he might be a dirtbag but he's not going to have anything to bully them with."

"Rucker bet all his money on Tank and _you_ won the fight," Sophie pointed out. "He liquidated the credit on the gym to make those bets, he's completely dried out."

"Not to mention the fact that the IRS is going to be waiting with a pair of handcuffs if he ever tries to get out of that hospital," Hardison added. "I finally managed to make sense of his financials last night. The thing is, they don't make any sense. He never claimed the income he made from the fights he promoted. A fact that some good, honest citizen may have tipped the IRS off about."

"The Holworths are going to be just fine. We've got the money from Rucker's bets to give them a new start," Nate explained further.

"Maybe they'll even buy the gym," Sophie theorized. "Help some other fighters avoid suffocation."

The rest of the team didn't understand what she meant but Eliot nodded in appreciation of the plan. The fact that Rucker was going to be away for good, whether in jail or a coma, and their clients had gotten what they deserved, revenge and a fresh start, helped ease the chaos in Eliot's mind. He felt more in control of what had happened now that he knew the outcome had been what they wanted. He still sighed though, knowing he had a lot left to work through.

"Well that's something at least," he commented, then cleared his throat. "Hey guys did you say we had two rooms, I'm still feeling kind of beat."

Eliot was pointing to the bed like he wanted to get some sleep and they all nodded and rose to leave.

"Yeah, we'll go next door. You get some sleep. Glad you're okay," Sophie said sincerely, placing a hand on his shoulder before she stepped out.

"Let us know if you need anything, seriously," Hardison added, following Sophie's example and getting close to Eliot, even punching him lightly on the arm.

"Aspirin's in the drawer," Nate told him, assuming he would need it and patting him on the back as his own display of trust.

"Got it," Eliot said in thanks, appreciative of each small gesture.

As they filed out of the room one by one Eliot followed them to close and lock the door behind them. Parker was the last one to leave, only, she didn't leave. Instead she walked to the doorway and stood for a moment, staring out into the hallway beyond until she was sure Eliot was walking up behind her.

Then she started to fall backwards into the room.

"Parker, what are you … Parker!"

Moving faster than his sore muscles would have liked Eliot reached out and caught the thief beneath the shoulders, halting her fall just two feet above the ground.

With a groan he pushed her back up to standing, "What the hell was that? You all right?"

"I'm fine," she said with a grin. "It was just a test. I had to prove something."

"Prove what? Gravity?"

She shook her head, her smile shrinking into something more personal.

"You always catch me. Thanks."

Then she disappeared down the hall after the others. Eliot shook his head because there was something wrong with her, but he also smiled as he shut the door.

The end.

Hope you enjoyed. Drugged and consequently guilty Eliot is a lot of fun! Thanks for the prompts and proddings to write this, all of you!


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